Through the first 11 months of 2023, electricity generation in the United States declined 1.1 percent year-over- year, mostly due to improved energy intensity. Despite the proliferation of data centers and the growth of power-hungry technologies, for the better part of the past twenty years electricity generation in the U.S. has been close to flat. Yet the number of power outages is increasing, and if you listen to government and corporate leaders, as well as electric-grid experts, all is not well.
The power grids in the U.S. and Europe are old, increasingly strained and under the constant threats of cyberattack and extreme weather. At the same time, much greater demand is being forecast due to artificial intelligence (AI), cryptocurrencies, electric vehicles, server farms and the general electrification of everything. Facing a potential era of limits, governments, energy providers and big technology companies are beginning to invest in solutions including nuclear, data center efficiencies and hydrogen to ensure that access to electricity remains stable.